There's plenty of semiotic ambiguity in this sign, nailed to a tree at Loloho beach. This beach belongs to kiwis? Which kiwis? How come? Since when? Non-kiwis are welcome? Unwelcome? Welcome so long as they behave in some kind of kiwi way? Uphold defined kiwi values? When kiwis come across beach ownership in, say, the Mediterranean they are scandalised, but here is a bit of territory marking of a very similar stripe. Does anyone, could anyone, know what the people in the village right by the beach think?
Is there an Aussie beach? Could there be a Chinese beach? And what about all the other beaches in Bougainville, which lack signs?
Seems to me that this little sign points, perhaps unintentionally but still unmistakably, down the familiar settler society path of re-naming, marking, mapping, pegging, surveying, fencing, owning.
Why not erect a sign 'Loloho Beach'? Why not just leave well alone?
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